THE HIBISCUS AVENUE

I was watering the plants and admiring the myriad colours of the hibiscus plants I had grown. On our last holiday in Ooty, I had befriended the gardener of the resort where we stayed and through him acquired some very rare but beautiful hibiscus plants. It was about three months since I had planted them and I was delighted to see a large number of buds in almost all of them.

My daughter, Vinny who shared my passion for gardening was with me and she was counting all the buds – “Amma, I counted thirty-eight of them,” she exclaimed in delight. She even kept a mental note of the various hues of the flowers which would bloom the next day. 

We then went about our usual chores and called it a day. The next morning, when I woke up, I was curious to see the hibiscus in bloom, for this would be the first set of flowers. I just could not believe my eyes! Here I was, expecting a riot of colours, but got to see only the greenery of the plants. Not a single flower was to be seen! We lived in a retirement community with round-the-clock security and for many years lived peacefully without even a pin being stolen. Many a time, we would even forget to lock the main door at night but felt very safe. Now, who would steal flowers? My heart ached to see all my love’s labour lost. I had tended to each one of the plants as if I would a child and felt very sad and disappointed that whoever plucked the flowers did so heartlessly.

After the loss of my husband, nurturing the plants made me feel as if I was paying my tribute to him, for he too was passionate about growing flowering plants. I had taken on the responsibility of maintaining the flower bed opposite our villa across the road and specialized in planting various varieties of hibiscus, so much so that our lane came to be known as the Hibiscus Avenue.

Vinny too shared my grief and the whole day we talked about nothing but the stolen flowers. While she was walking along the flower bed, she happened to sight a single, crumpled but very beautiful double hibiscus in bright red color with a dash of yellow in the center. She picked it up and brought it home and tried to revive it popping it in a glass of water in which she had popped an aspirin tablet.

I walked down to the office and lamented about the missing buds which ought to have bloomed today to the Resident Manager. He patiently listened to me and assured me to look into the matter. By lunchtime, I saw that there were spikes all over our community with stickers reading, “DO NOT PLUCK FLOWERS”.

He had also approached our neighbouring community guards and asked them to be alert and inform him if they saw anyone plucking flowers.

It seems very childish to crib about such a frivolous thing, but those who have put their heart and soul into it, know how bad it hurts. I teamed up with Vinny and we decided to keep turns the next morning to catch the culprit red-handed.

It may sound silly, but in the evening, we noted down the number of buds in each variety and colour. It was pure guesswork as we had not seen any of the flowers and had to rely on the colour of the buds.

We set the alarm clock at 4.30 a.m., and both of us were up and went out to see the blooms before we took our positions at the window sill to sight the thief. What a rude shock!! It was a repeat of the previous day, the only difference being that instead of one, two flowers were lying on the ground. Whoever plucked them must be a very early riser we thought.

So the next day we advanced our alarm to 3.30. Again we were disappointed as we found no sign of any buds on the plants and they were bare of any flowers. This was getting more intriguing and challenging. We just had to nab the thief come what may. We roped in our neighbours too and kept vigil from midnight in turns, but we met with disappointment as not a soul turned up.

How could they just vanish into thin air? If there were no buds, the question of their disappearance would not arise, but we had all seen that the plants bore buds abundantly.

That evening Vinny and I sat on the verandah, keeping a record of all those who passed by our house. We also kept a watch on their movements to see if we could get any clue. One of the residents, I thought could be brought under the scanner as while walking his gaze was fixed on the plants. As it was a full moon night, both of us had our dinner outside just to keep watching. We then played cards till about 10 p.m., and before retiring to bed, positioned our mobile phones on the window sill and switched on the recording mode. We hardly slept as we were excited that in all probability, we would surely solve the mystery, what with the abundant arrangements we had made!

Sure enough, we were proved right! Our mobile had captured a gentleman plucking all the buds around 11 p.m., and stuffing them into his pocket! The picture was not too clear as there was insufficient light, but by watching his mannerisms, I thought I could identify him.

The Resident Manager happened to pass by our house when we were analysing the video clip and he too was able to concur with my guess. Both of us then walked to his house which was quite a distance away, but the feeling to confront him was so strong, that it did not matter. 

We rang the bell and waited for him to emerge. He was undoubtedly surprised at the duo waiting to meet him. Though the RM started to exchange some pleasantries, I would have none of it. “Excuse me, I would like to see your pooja room,” I merely muttered and made my way to the Pooja room. There, all the forty-two half bloomed buds lay in a basket, and there were many more from other people’s gardens!

This gentleman who had been gazing at the plants on his walk would make a mental note of all the places where he could pluck flowers from and when the whole community had gone to bed, would sneak out and pluck them. The plain varieties were spared – only the rare ones appealed to him. 

Word of my solving the mystery was all over the community. One by one, many residents complained that they too were missing the flowers, but none had gone to the extent that Vinny and I had gone to.

He did not turn up for many days after this incident, but when he did, I called him and quoting the sages said that if you offer flowers grown in your own garden to the Gods, that would be the best if you bought them and offered them, it was mediocre, but if you stole them and offered them, it would be SIN. Sad to say, he lost face in the community very soon after he left our community and relocated elsewhere. I only hope that the saga of his flower plucking would cease!

With no one to bother them, our lane is now a veritable Hibiscus Avenue.